Thursday, March 30, 2017

"Republican legislation letting states deny federal family planning money to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers squeezed narrowly through the Senate Thursday..."

"The federal family planning program was created 1970 and in 2015 served 4 million clients at nearly 4,000 clinics. Most of the money is for providing services like contraceptives, family planning counseling, breast and cervical cancer screening and sexually transmitted disease prevention. It has a $286 million federal budget this year.

Most recipients are women, and two-thirds have incomes at or below the federal poverty level, around $12,000 for an individual. Six in 10 say the program's services are their only or most frequent source of health care."

I imagine that Pence and the Reps are proud of themselves for reducing abortions, but of course, exactly the opposite will happen - abortions will rise, as will disease and health issues amongst the women depending on family planning and health services. Without family planning and contraceptive care and assistance there will be more pregnancies and thus more abortions of unwanted pregnancies.Ideology is a strange thing, blocking out any information that contradicts the dogma. The Reps hurt poor women today. Not happy.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

It's hard for me to keep up with all the things Trump and the Republicans are doing which harm us. But, I just wanted to point out one that just happened. They are removing internet privacy laws, allowing companies to sell information on us including:"...browsing habits, app usage history, location data and Social Security numbers..."

Friday, March 24, 2017

I think I have been too didactic, polemic, and left wing
since the advent of Trump and Trumpism.
I want to feel more balanced as I think about America and the
world. To that end, I am thinking liberals
are sometimes moving unwisely out of their disgust of Trump.

I think liberals make a mistake by going all out to block Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. I
understand that the left think that the Republicans stole the vacated Scalia
seat from them by refusing to hold hearings on Obama’s moderate left nominee –
Merrick Garland. And I think it was
appalling that they did that. But, in
truth, what chance would he have had to be confirmed by a Republican controlled
Senate? I disagreed with the tactic, but I don’t
think Obama would have gotten a nominee confirmed.

And now the Republicans control the White House and the Senate. They will decide who becomes the next Supreme
Court judge. If the Democrats exact
revenge for Garland, don’t they use up all of their weapons on this
confirmation – i.e. the filibuster?
Gorsuch will replace Scalia, and the court balance becomes what it had
been before Scalia’s passing. I didn’t
like many of the decisions of that court, but it’s not really a change.

If the Dems block Gorsuch, isn’t there another Gorsuch in the
wings for the job? If they tempt the Republicans to use the “nuclear
option” of bypassing the filibuster and needing only a majority to confirm,
they would be much wiser, it seems to me, to wait until, or if, it is time to
replace a liberal Justice, not a conservative one.

I think liberals are laboring under a fantasy that hearings into Russian - Trump campaign improprieties will nullify the election. But isn't that about the same fantasy that conservatives harbored for a long time that it would be proved that Obama was really born in Kenya, and his election would be nullified? The Reps were in the cold for eight years, they are in power now, and will be for at least two more years, and maybe up to eight. Liberals need to do something other than copy the extremism of the Reps during the Obama years. I have hope that new leadership can emerge from the Left out of the ashes of the 2016 election to shine a new light. And, as a matter of fact, as Trump and the Reps continue to destroy themselves now that they are stuck with power and responsibility, I have hope that new leadership can arise from their ashes as well into an inspiring vision of the Right - which is not Libertarian, or Tea Party, or Corporate Plutocracy...

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The Trump budget emphasizes the military and
cuts the safety net for America and the world.
This is no surprise, and there is much that is distressing about the
Trump budget, but I just wanted to point out one characteristic that pretty
well summarizes today’s Republican Party, to me.

Cruelty.

Apparently, Trump and the Reps want to cut
funding for Health and Human Services Community Development Block Grants by 16%
which includes the Administration for Community Living which funds “Meals on
Wheels” that feeds impoverished elderly.
I wonder how many of my conservative friends thought they voted for
cutting funds to feeding the elderly?

“We are facing the largest humanitarian crisis
since the creation of the United Nations,”warnedStephen O’Brien, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief.
“Without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve
to death.”

So, the
Trump administration has decided that this is the time to cut humanitarian aid
overseas. “Humanitarian” - “Trump”? Those two words don’t go together. Used to be that the United States was the
major force of benevolence and hope for a despairing world. Now, it’s just “America First” – or, tough
luck people, you’re on your own – or, America is no better than any other
country, we’re only interested in ourselves.

It seems to me that this cutting of humanitarian
support in the world is not only contrary to American principles and ideals,
but against our interests as well, because America is safer and more prosperous
in a stable world rather than one ravaged by poverty and famine. So it seems to
me that the whole concept of “American First” is short sighted and harmful to
America’s role in the world and to America’s future. But, budget cutters don’t
seem to notice, let alone care.

Not to forget, by the way, that the Trumpcare
replacement for Obamacare will remove 24 million people from healthcare
insurance. So they can just get sick
and, you know … die. But, hey, their poor so who cares?

But, oh yes, they do want to build a completely
useless wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Must have billions for that…don’t want to make the Trumpsters angry…

I remain disgusted by this administration, and
it’s not just Trump. The Republican
Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives has their fingerprints all over
this budget.

It is discouraging to watch the goodness of
America be abandoned and replaced by cruelty.

Monday, March 13, 2017

The Congressional Budget Office
(CB0) has come out with its report on the Republican replacement for the
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). No surprise – 24,000,000 people will
lose health care.

24,000,000 -people –
humans - men and women and children.

I know Republicans are accused of not caring much about people, but
do they really want to start killing them? I guess it reduces taxes on the wealthy? So that makes it OK?

I sincerely doubt that the Republican House will vote for this
bill, and if it does I think it has almost no chance to pass the Senate.
But, still, is this what my conservative friends voted for when they
voted for a Republican President, Republican Senate, and Republican House?

Friday, March 3, 2017

Trump signed has decided that background checks on those deemed to be mentally disabled needs to be stopped. I don't find this comforting, and I don't think this has anything to do with personal freedom. I think it has to do with the gun lobby wanting to sell guns, and controlling the Republican Party.

"While the press corps was distracted and the cable channels aired footage of Trump surrounded by a bipartisan group of smiling women, behind closed doors and with no fanfare the president quietly signed a measure that killed a regulation enacted by the Obama administration to tighten gun background checks.

The rule required the Social Security Administration to send over the names of people who receive government checks for being mentally disabled and others who have been deemed unable to handle their own financial affairs to the FBI office that runs the national background check database. This is a universe of about 75,000 people."

I'm with Wyatt Earp - no guns in Dodge ... or at least there should be a background check.

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About Me

I am a boomer who has been both a left winger and a right winger and am seeking to add some soothing energy to the inflamed polarizations of today's rhetoric. However, in the age of extremist Republicanism I see the best way to soothe the waters is to oppose the inflammations from the Right, and the Left as needed.